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18.2.1.1 org-element-parse-buffer

Function: org-element-parse-buffer &optional granularity visible-only ¶

Recursively parse the buffer and return its structure. If narrowing is in effect, only parse the visible part of the buffer.

The Org buffer has a virtual node of type ‘org-data’ and ‘nil’ as properties, that is, no properties are attached to it. The data obtained from this function can be modified freely using setters.

GRANULARITY

determines the depth of the recursion.

It can be set to the following symbols:

• ‘headline’ : parse headlines only
• ‘greater-element’ : do not recurse into greater elements except headlines and sections. That is, the elements that are parsed are the top-level ones.
• ‘element’ : parse everything except objects and plain text
• ‘object’ : parse the complete buffer; this is the default.

VISIBLE-ONLY

when non-nil, do not parse the contents of hidden elements.

RETURN VALUE

elements and objects; an element or object is represented as a list with the pattern (TYPE PROPERTIES CONTENTS), where :

TYPE

is a symbol describing the element or object. One can retrieve it with org-element-type function.

PROPERTIES

is the list of attributes attached to the element or object, as a plist. all types share ‘:begin’, ‘:end’, ‘:post-blank’ and ‘:parent’ properties.

Properties values can be obtained by using org-element-property function.

CONTENTS

is a list of elements, objects or raw strings contained in the current element or object, when applicable.

One can access them with org-element-contents function.

org-element-map function can be used to find specific elements or objects within the parse tree.